Pune and Sangam

I arrived at Sangam by way of Auto, from the station just in time for tea. Sangam is one of the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts 4 International Centre's Located around the world, The others are in London, Switzerland and Mexico. I joined the other Guiders for the evening meal which was very Western by the standards I had been used to for the last 15 days , a bit of a reverse culture shock! On chatting to the other Ladies here it turns out that they are are all here on a 10 day programme of working with local people, at an old peoples home to build a new garden for them, and at a Deaf and Dumb School to paint up the School Rooms. The event is an 'international' one however of the 50 or so participants all bar 2 are from the UK. Even more strange is that one of them knows Kyle, and Cath who I used to work with (from Swansea!) It's definitely a Small world,

After a good nights sleep (and finding out there's a 'Wine Shop' just down the road that sells Kingfisher) I was up at 8 for the 8:30 breakfast. It's all very Guide Camp with Grace before every meal, 'servers' and 'clearer's' and food going one way round the table and dirty plates the other, slightly regimented and quaint but it doesn't take you long to get the hang of it.

I have to be very careful here as many of them have threatened to read this; Might I say some are slightly eccentric; in the best possible way :), however they are all lovely Ladies and really getting into the swing of things jumping in auto's to go off the the cinema or walking down the road to the sweet shop/Internet cafe/wine shop at night. During the day they are out at their relative projects and get back around 4ish. So during the day apart from a number of staff I have the place to myself,

The first day I stayed on site it was nice to just relax and do nothing after15 days on the go. (Have I really only got another 6.5 months left!) On Wednesday I went out into town to meet up with Janaki, Janaki is the wife of Abhijit Tuljarpulkar who was the manager of the offshore training team when we first came out to Pune. From this first visit we became good friends as Janaki became the local Personal Shopper! Times have moved on an Abhi is now working for another firm and unfortunately he is currently away in the States. However I still met up with Janaki, Rudra (their Son) and Janaki's Brother who chaperoned her. So armed with most important info ever; how to calculate Auto fares from the meter (I've been trying to find this out for the last 5 years – it's the meter rate times 7 plus 3; if only I'd known earlier it would have saved me a fortune!) After lunch with Janaki I went to do a bit of window shopping around MG Road, This is one of the main shopping areas in town, the other being Laxshmi Road. after a while of buying nothing, I decided to head over to the Taj Blue Diamond for a Steak. The Taj does the best steaks in town and this was no exception, yes it was a bit of a splash out but I enjoyed it all the same. The Taj is having a fair bit of renovation and all the reception and bar is closed but the Coffee Shop is still open and has at last got rid of the awful wrought iron chairs and the naff musak! The Security at all the big hotels has been beefed up since the Mumbai Bombings and you now have to go through airport style checks to get in – some had them before but the actually use them now!

I left the Taj unfortunately around rush hour and couldn't get an Auto for love nor money, well I could but at double or treble the normal fare, so I walked back to Sangam. This seemed to surprise the staff there, the fact that I had actually walked that distance not that there was any problem areas. It took me about an hour to walk back but it was nice to just observe what was going on.

On the Wednesday I had offered to do some work for Sangam so I was asked if paint the front gates. No problem I thought however I didn't count on the Gate-Man who Guards the front entrance. If I painted a bit white it should have been purple if I painted purple it should white and If I missed a bit he made sure I knew. To cap it all he kept talking to me constantly in Maharti (The local language) to which I have no idea whatsoever he was trying to tell me apart from every so often he looked at me expecting a fluent response 'Tikha' I replied which is 'OK' in Hindi. I still don't know what I agreed to but I've managed to escape from Pune with out any livestock or a new wife.

Thursday I came down with a cold so I laid low for the day sleeping most of it, in the evening a visit to the wine shop to procure a medical bottle of Whiskey did the trick and by Friday it was on the way out.

Friday day I went back to to the painting but this time armed with a second brush, the second the guard opened his mouth i produced the spare brush and shoved it in his hand. He got the idea and I kept pointing out bits he'd missed and took great glee in chiding him when he dripped white paint on the already painted purple bit. Friday evening I took an auto out to Hinjawadi and Infosys where I used to work and met up with a load of the guys from there. Unfortunately as I am no longer an actual BT employee I was not aloud to even pass through the outer gates of Infosys, so I had to wait for them in the Bar next door – a hardship I could just about bear with. It was great to see everyone again and chat with them all, The had also clubbed together and got me a nice big diary for 2010 to record my travels in, which I will use from January to take notes in. They are a lovely bunch of people, after a quick meal and a couple of drinks we had to depart as they all had cabs arranged to take them home (Infosys pays for transport to and from the office as public transport is not practical here) Leena the manager has her own car so she gave me and a couple of the guys a lift.

Saturday I chilled out again at the Centre just reading and relaxing and then Sunday after finishing the painting of the gates I joined the Guiders for their Campfire in the evening. I joined in with my usual gusto and got them moving to Father Abraham and then did Cum-Bye-Yah with Taps at the end. After the camp fire I wrote out the words – twice for people to take away.

As I said earlier the ladies were a wonderful bunch of people from all over the UK and Denmark. The staff were great too and one of them Emma has taken my details to pass on to a Scouter in Brisbane who she says will be able to point me in the right direction when I get to Oz. (Which apparently will also be Australia Day!)

Finally it's time to move on again and now I'm on the train to Bangalore for a couple of days.